This invention relates to luggage and in particular to handles which may be attached to suitcases having rollers.
Pull handles for luggage have been available for decades. Suitcases, both hard-sided and soft-sided, have in recent years incorporated mounted castered wheels or other means of rolling the luggage along, enabling the user to pull a suitcase along by its pull handle. The presently available luggage pull handles are typically built-in to the luggage and are complex in structure. Such arrangements are exemplified by the patents of Bieber et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,579, Carpenter et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,048,649, and Hager, U.S. Pat. No. 4,256,320. Certain rigid, attachable pull handle configurations are also known. These typically, are described by the patents of Castelli, U.S. Pat. No. 4,358,006, Seynhaeve, U.S. Pat. No. 4,340,990, and Krenzel, U.S. Pat. No. 4,838,396. The available handles are not stowable, but are open and have only a single position or length for pulling the suitcase in a trailing mode.
In studying their usage, it has been observed that a single position or handle length can be too short for taller than average persons or too long for short persons, particularly when the suitcase is to be pulled along airport terminal hallways.
There is thus a need for a simple, attachable pull handle for suitcases, the pull handle being stowable and having more than one position and length adaptable for use by both short and tall persons.